Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 74631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
I’m feeding her a piece of sweetened fruit when she closes her lips around my fingers and moans.
It is all I can do not to curse aloud. My cock strains in the front of my breeches. Elle’s chest heaves as if the fruit has reminded her of more forbidden things she wants, and her arousal lingers in the air along with the food.
I draw my fingers out of her mouth slowly.
“Your kitchen has sent the best tonight,” Elle remarks faintly, one hand curled around the edge of the table. She sits upright again, but she does not have her breathing under control. The tension is thick between us.
It’s so thick that I cannot keep the words I wish to say inside. I cannot wait for the next opportunity to write a note. I keep my control over the beast steady, though it does not seem I will be able to divide my efforts for long if Elle takes this much pleasure in the rest of her food. Her lips glisten with the juices from the fruit, and I want to devour her. From her lips down her neck, lower and lower until I can feast between her legs.
“I will care for you if you care for me,” I say, keeping my voice low to disguise the lust I feel. It is too blunt a proposal, but it’s all I can do to contain myself. I know she will understand that I am offering her something of value. She has fed on a fine meal. She has rested in the most comfortable bed. She has seen the grandeur of the ballroom and knows by now that the rest of the castle contains similar riches.
Elle brings her bottom lip in, her teeth catching it for just a moment, and I am bowled over by a feeling of selfishness. It is selfish, the offer I am making her. No amount of food or beds or riches will equal what I am getting. I fight the inner critique of my selfishness down. We are already on this path. She will be mine and only mine. Always to stay within the castle walls and to forever submit to me.
Elle swallows thickly and asks, “For how long?”
For always, I bite down the response and offer instead a truth more palpable. “For as long as I wish.” That is even more blunt than the first, but equally true. There is little point in disguising the true nature of the terms from her. If she is to accept this willingly, she must know what she is agreeing to.
Elle hesitates, her mouth turning down. “My father…”
“Will mourn your loss, as fathers do.” I am matter-of-fact, for there is nothing else to be. Fathers lose their children. That is what happens to all of them. “He will live and be unharmed.”
Elle could not be more beautiful in the firelight. Even as she straightens, a frown mars her beauty for only a moment before she seems to come up with a negotiation.
“What if I wish to leave?” she asks, her voice not much louder than the crackle of the fire in the grate.
This is the part of the bargain that she will not like. I would keep it from her if I could, but I cannot.
“Then I cannot promise your father would remain unharmed.”
She bites into her lip with more force, her breath quickening, and sits back in her chair, increasing the distance between us. Her fear is obvious in the air, and this time the magic cannot entirely subdue it. I would not have expected her to care so deeply about her father, who would have given her to Crawe, but perhaps I should have.
I lay my hand over hers where it is curled around the edge of the table. Elle flexes her hand, turning it upright so our palms are together.
“I do not wish to hurt anyone,” I admit and the heaviness of it hits me unexpectedly. It is difficult to lay myself bare this way, although I am hidden from her by the blindfold. “I only crave you. It may pass, but I…” The words catch in my throat. “I crave you to the point of madness. So you will remain inside the castle walls.”
Elle takes a shuddering breath. The beast notices this even from his resting state. Is it him who drives me to madness for Elle, or is it me? I have fought him for so long, but looking at her like this, obedient and compliant and hungry for me, makes me question whether I was fighting the cursed beast or my own impulses.
“No one has ever said such a thing to me before,” she replies softly. I can hear her heart pounding in her chest. I think I may hear it even if I did not have the beast within me, for that is how much I crave her.